The following is written by product designer, Victoria Rico.
This cane was made for Lana’s “Canyon of Heroes” Fall 2023 collection. I
was supposed to make a replica of what Lana had originally sketched out for the entire outfit, but along the way I made some design choices that were achievable, given the time frame and skill level, and fit the aesthetic of the original design. It is made out of plywood, brass and aluminum wire.
The original sketch was made by Lana. The design had a spiral handle and the part of the cane that touched the ground was a needle like shape.
I started out by sketching the handle in order to figure out the measurements and scale.
The sketches also helped me visualize how I would cut the handle out on the bandsaw without pinching the blade and how I would connect the handle to the staff. In order to cut out the handle, I made several relief cuts on all of the curved areas. I also made drawings of how the handle would be cut out on the inside. I think one of the most challenging parts of the making of the cane was cutting out the inside of the handle on the bandsaw.
Wood working:
For the making of the handle, I began by gluing two ¾ inch thick pieces of plywood together and transferring my sketch onto it. Then I cut it all out on the bandsaw. You could see that I struggled a bit with the guiding of the blade. I was able to fix it by sanding the outside of the spiral on the disk sander and by sanding the inside of the handle on the spindle sander.
After sanding the edges, I was able to use the hand router to round out the handle. The reason why I chose plywood is because the lines look very beautiful and I thought it would fit the aesthetic of the collection. The plywood with a glossy finish would pair really well with the gold accents that are later incorporated into the design.
After routing it I sanded it again with the disk and spindle sander, as well as sanding it by hand to really smooth the handle to perfection.
Staff sketching:
I started by sketching the staff in order to get a feel for the measurements, just as I did for the handle, visualize the connection between the staff and the handle and figure out how I would incorporate the needle like ferrule (tip of the cane) in a way that was possible given my metal working experience as well as the time frame I was given for the project.
Assembly:
For the wooden part of the staff, I again glued two ¾ inch thick pieces of plywood that were about 27 inches long and 2 inches thick. I used the table router on this piece to round the edges. For the connection between the handle and the staff I used the drill press to drill a ⅝ thick hole into both pieces. Then I glued the two pieces together using a wooden dowel which made the connection stronger.
Needle Ferrule:
For the ferrule, I was initially going to make a cone out of an aluminum sheet and then spray paint it gold. In order to do that I would have had to plasma cut, bend and weld the sheet, which at that time, I was not familiar with any of those processes, but I did not have the time to learn and somewhat master those skills before the photoshoot.
Another idea I had was to cut strips of sheet metal and screw them all onto the wood and create a needle end to the cane that way, but it would be too time consuming to do that. I hit a bit of a road block so I decided to consult with my friend who told me that I should not do either of those ideas because they were time consuming and meticulous.
She instead encouraged me to work with a material I already had experience working with: wire. I have hand twisted wire for multiple projects before and I enjoy the process very much. It is peaceful. I usually twist one piece of armature wire twice (as shown in the picture below), but for this project I decided to twist the wire on itself three times.
After twisting the wire, I spray painted it gold. I then drilled a hole near the bottom of the cane in order to thread the wire through the wood.
For the final, I gave the plywood two coats of an oil-based polyurethane finish. I then wrapped some brass wire around the connection between the handle and the staff in order to make it look seamless. And lastly, I created a spiral structure with the wire that compliments the handles. For the model in the shoot, I had to make the ferrule more stable so I manipulated the ferrule and wrapped the wire piece around the staff for stability.
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